At the start of any journey I ask myself a simple question.
Who am I and what do I want?
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"Nobody will ever know...Even I am unsure "
I believe I am what the Koreans call 'Hasu', or 'mediocre' in English. Someone who plays the game at a completely average state. I am a 'nothing special', average apm standard Starcraft II player.
What I want, is to be a Diamond level player and have knowledge enough to cast Starcraft II at its highest level play.
I have deliberately kept my simple answer to this question entirely relevant to StarCraft II alone. In truth to you, I am already a successful caster in another RTS title. I hold top 100 ranks in that game and have been very successful streaming it. But when it comes to Starcraft... I am mediocre.
I think that it's really
Mediocre
What happens when you see yourself like this is that you don't take for granted the very basics of learning something new. You stop skipping things you think you already know and start to respect the subject you are learning. You may actually come to realise that you don't respect the subject of what you are learning if you are prepared to overlook the foundations so easily.
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This is a big mistake I see from a lot of people when learning new games. They transfer their existing 'relevant' knowledge from another game into their current learning stream, and immediately cut out the
Did you ever skip that video tutorial on how to hotkey your units because you've experienced using hotkeys somewhere else? Did you then discover something about hotkeys for your current game that you didn't know and then find out it was in that video all along?
"Lose the ego kid... it's not doing you any favours"
This is why for the last 2 weeks, I've been going through endless videos of the most basic of basic intros to Starcraft II. And would you be surprised if I told you that I didn't know it all already?
Have you ever wondered why people who hit rock bottom are able to bounce back the highest? It's because when the ego is removed, you take the correct steps to climb the ladder. They stop jumping steps because they know they will fall and they know what that feels like to land at the bottom and have to learn how to climb all over again.
When the right steps are taken, success happens quickly
If you've ever experienced rock bottom yourself, think about what that felt like and become that person when you approach the start of your new journey. I hope this gives you a little idea about my approach to learning Starcraft.
I'll be keeping this blog as a method of further learning. Documenting what I find, where I found it and what difference it's made to me. I'll keep track of my progress and failings as I jump headfirst into the knowledge pool of Starcraft II.
My name is Danny. You can find me online as twitch.tv/stormless where I will be learning StarCraft II live and open to all forms of discussion. Expect a blog post from me every week with a review of what I've learned and what my next targets are.
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A huge thanks to two amazing friends I have who both have their own SC2 ambitions for me and are continuing to push me to my limits. Both of them are demanding and impatient but are the most encouraging teammates I have. I'm honoured that either of them see potential in me I aim to exceed both of their expecations